Honestly ringed city and The Old hunters are just tied with me.
Erd tree is my no 2.
You just can’t best slaveknight Gael or Ludwig though as bosses
Old Hunters takes the best game ever and makes it better
Haven’t played BB, finished SotE last night.
Overall, I much prefer the scope and scale of Expansions like SotE for RPGs, they last long enough to tell a proper story and actually expand upon the base game in a meaningful and lasting way. Think Far Harbor vs Automatron if you’ve played Fallout 4.
Pound for pound, I do think SotE is better. Midir and Gael were fantastic, but the overall package wasn’t quite as nice, nor as expansive.
Overall, I much prefer the scope and scale of Expansions like SotE for RPGs, they last long enough to tell a proper story and actually expand upon the base game in a meaningful and lasting way. Think Far Harbor vs Automatron if you’ve played Fallout 4.
I was going to write something similiar to this. Shadow of the Erdtree actually feels like something you can sink your teeth into, whereas Ringed City can easily be beaten within two evenings. Just like two extra areas to add to the rest of the game, whereas SotE could easily be its own game. It kind of has to be, since it is in its exploration that Elden Ring really shines and that just wouldn’t work if you didn’t have the physical space of the gameworld to actually get lost in. The DLC definitely has its problems, like I can definitely see people dislike the bosses, the scadutree blessings and I’m personally just not a big fan of how it interacts/doesn’t interact with the main game, but besides that it’s basically a better, more compact version of the main game. It somehow managed to surprise me just as much as the maingame with just how much better and more surprising it ended up being than I would have expected, cannot wait for whatever they make next.
Yep, those are my overall thoughts. I always said as much as I love New Vegas’ DLCs, it would have been better to have 1 or 2 expansions, perhaps into Arizona or even Dog City in Denver. A foil to the main game’s NCR focus, with enough content to truly allow you to sink your teeth in deeply, and new playstyles and choices that impact the base game.
I Do NOT like ringed city. Gael is a good fight, but I hate hate hate the rest of the DLC. Ashes of Ariandel is way better.
Old Hunters is great, although I lost access to the PS4 I was playing on before I could beat Orphan, so I have to knock it down a little just for being a PS exclusive.
I haven’t played Shadow of the Erdtree yet, because it’s fucking $40 and I just can’t justify spending that on a game right now.
Artorias of the Abyss. A short and sweet boss rush that gives new context to underutilized existing areas of the base game with a bunch of totally new bosses. The worst part was getting to it in the first place.
Old Hunters ez. It still has the Fromsoft issue of expecting the player to have grinded to a specific high level before entering the DLC and thus soft DPS and HP gating with early enemies and bosses, but Old Hunters has some of my favorite bosses, weapons, visuals, and music of any From game. Ludwig, Lady Maria, Orphan of Kos
Ringed City is great atmospherically and architecturally, but I grew to hate the ambush-souls style of DS3. That and the extremely fast Bloodborne-paced enemies in a game where you the player are forced to operate at Dark Souls pace. The game pace issues continued into base Elden Ring IMO, and the number of instakill enemies in ER just make the issue more egregious. That said, Gael is a great fight. I love the visuals of the flowing cape, screaming souls, lightning and thunder amid the ash wasteland. Midir is an instakill hp sponge that I hate lol. Feels more at home in Monster Hunter.
Haven’t tried Shadow yet but my problems with the base game of Elden Ring lead me to believe that it won’t be my favorite. The atmosphere and design in ER and what I’ve seen of Shadow are still top tier though.
I do not much care for Bloodborne. The combat does not work for me, I need a block to enjoy combat. So I’ve never even played old hunters, but I’ve seen like 4 streamers play it completely. It seems okay. But it can’t be me. Also I loathe the Victorian cosmic horror aesthetic so the game was just pushing against me with everything. I got to the mind palace boss fight and tapped out.
Ringed city is god damn amazing though and I need to replay it. That Gael fight is just superb, midir such a joy.
I’d put shadow behind ringed city. Old hunters falls into the void of never playing it.
Unfortunate because Old Hunters introduces a somewhat useful shield to the game lol. Granted it’s not super effective against physical attacks but it’s very useful vs a few bosses that have ranged attacks
The one where Slave Knight Gael is the boss. That boss fight is top tier. It is one of my favourite experiences in gaming.
haven’t played bloodborne. i was personally more enthralled by both ringed city and artorias than SotE though, but it was really good. just didn’t grip me quite in the same way
All three are absolutely fantastic.
For me I think I would put Shadow of the Erdtree at the top, because of the sheer volume of content and ambience it added to the game. I absolutely loved all the main remembrance bosses and the new locations added. Rauh was so different from previous locations From did and so good that I now want a jungle themed game from them so bad. I also love the last boss fight, it was challenging as hell.
Ringed City and Old Hunters are tied for me. Like I absolutely love Ringed City, the last boss fight with Gael and how it finished the series, but Old Hunters made me fall in love with Bloodborne, even tho I was so over leveled for it I demolished the DLC. I absolutely love the Fishing Hamlet, it made me feel like I was inside a Lovecraft book.
